Centering Prayer (traditionally called contemplative prayer) is a method of prayer that prepares us to receive the gift of God’s presence. It involves responding to the Spirit of Christ by consenting to God’s presence and action within. Centering Prayer facilitates the movement from more active modes of prayer – verbal, mental, or affective prayer – into a receptive prayer of resting in God. It emphasizes prayer as a personal relationship with God.
Tuesday evenings at 6:00 pm and Thursday mornings at 10:00 am

At the same time, it is a discipline to foster and serve this relationship by a regular, daily practice of prayer. It is Trinitarian in its source, Christ-centered in its focus, and ecclesial in its effects – that is, it builds communities of faith. Centering Prayer is drawn from ancient prayer practices of the Christian contemplative heritage, notably the Fathers and Mothers of the Desert, Lectio Divina (praying the scriptures), The Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross, and St. Teresa of Avila. It was distilled into a simple method of prayer in the 1970s by three Trappist monks - Father William Meninger, Father Basil Pennington, and Abbot Thomas Keating at St. Joseph’s Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts.

The Centering Prayer Support Groups will each meet for approximately 45 minutes to an hour. The time will be spent with some instruction in the method of Centering Prayer, discussion about the groups’ experience of the Prayer, and will always include a twenty-minute period of silent prayer.